Scars
by campfiresongs
Summary: The W.I.T.C.H girls and Caleb return to Earth after a long and gruelling campaign against an enemy in Meridian. What they encounter on returning home is not what they expected and definately not what any of them wanted.
1. Chapter 1

**Scars**- Chapter One

As a misty dawn crept closer the scenes of victory along the line began to settle as soldiers began to traipse back to camp; fatigued and exhausted, but all holding an elation in their hearts and an optimism that this would the last battle they would fight for a long time.

One such soldier did not let this hope or complacency mar his perpetual pessimism as he entered the Captain's tent that, usually, he was the sole occupant of. His entrance was greeted by the sounds of whoops and loud applause; a group of 5 girls in their late teens were gathered around a strategy planning table and had applauded on his entry. A peculiar bunch, their unusual outfits an antithesis for their mostly conventional hairstyles and overall attitudes.

One stepped forward and addressed the returning soldier; 'Report?' her voice concealed a maturity that, in stark contrast to her youthful appearance, conveyed a wisdom and responsibility beyond her years. The soldier placed his mud and blood clogged sword on a chair, 'Four injured, no fatalities. All injured expected to make a full recovery.' He answered formally, until his regal demeanour was broken by a sheepish grin that spread across his face. The girls squealed playfully and embraced affectionately, all complete foils for one another but fitting together effortlessly.

A tall, blonde haired member of the group broke off from the huddle and approached the soldier, 'Well done rebel leader!' she said excitedly, the girl who had originally addressed the soldier also stepped forward, 'Yeah Caleb,' she added, 'you really pulled through for us.' She flicked a lock of bright red hair out of her face, flashed a smile at the rebel leader and left the tent.

'Where's Will going?' questioned the most eccentric looking of the bunch, twisting a long pigtail around her finger, she cocked her head sideways innocently.

'She probably wants to go congratulate the troops, visit the injured.' answered a girl with dark skin and astute eyes.

A chirpy looking brunette shoved her way to the front of the now standing group, 'Yeah I wouldn't mind doing that either you know! Did you see some of those soldiers? They were fine!' She announced eagerly earning a disapproving look from the tall blonde girl.

'Honestly Irma,' she chided patronisingly, 'you give new meaning to the phrase one track mind.'

The brunette turned and muttered incoherently 'Takes one to know one.' sending the oriental girl with the pigtails into fits of giggles.

The brown-haired girl, Irma, turned to her, 'Geez Hay-lin you hearing is on freakishly high levels now! It makes me jumpy to know you ca always hear what I'm saying. I'd consider re-naming you bat-girl if it wouldn't mess up the whole W.I.T.C.H acronym!'

The dark skinned girl pushed her glasses up her nose and added 'Actually Irma bats have the best hearing of all the mammals and they use it for sight as well by sensing the ultra sound waves that come back to them to sense whether there are things in front of them.'

She finished matter-of-factly evidently unaware of the Irma's blank expression. 'Taranee there aren't even words for how little I care that bats are too lazy to just open their eyes and see where they're going.' Irma threw back playfully, interrupting Taranee's half formed response with a raised hand, 'I really don't wanna know T!'.

The young rebel leader had been watching this exchange fondly, finally happy to have returned unscathed and experiencing the normalcy the girls provided. He ran a hair through his already messy hair and sighed indulgently before lifting the flap of the tent and stepping quietly outside to the sight of sunrise.

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**Ok so this my first attempt at a story on here, so be gentle. Quite honestly, although I have a bit more handwritten I'm kinda making it up as I go along. Just to give a brief outline the girls are about 17/18 here and have just successfully helped the rebellion/army** **of Meridian defeat an anonymous enemy. So yeah, more to come hopefully. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Scars**- Chapter Two

The sun rose gloriously, bathing the churned and grotesque battlefield in a warm glow that seemed to glace off the scenes of death and violence and direct one's thoughts to happier things

The sun rose gloriously, bathing the churned and grotesque battlefield in a warm glow that seemed to glace off the scenes of death and violence and direct one's thoughts to happier things.

Caleb spotted the Guardian's leader before he saw anyone else, the sun had a particular way of reflecting off her red hair that made her impossible not to notice. Approaching her from behind he saw her standing posted outside the medics tent, her shoulders tensed and arms folded.

'Anyone would think you'd just fought a battle!' he called towards her, she jumped slightly and turned to face him. 'Look at the state of you!' he exclaimed as she faced him, 'When did you get so…disgustingly filthy? No offence.' he concluded, slightly guilty after the look on her face as she examined herself.

'I fell over.' she answered abruptly, 'Just now when I left the tent, tripped over a mound in the earth and fell into a puddle of mud.' she wrinkled her nose as she attempted to dust the mud off her arm but only succeeded in spreading it further. 'Don't laugh!' she said menacingly, as laughter tugged at the corners of Caleb's mouth. He coughed and covered his mouth, trying to adopt a more stoic approach.

'Why did you come out here?' he questioned after he had managed to compose himself.

She shrugged nonchalantly, 'I thought I should visit the injured, see if there was anything I could do to help. You?' she asked innocently.

Caleb ran a bandaged and through his hair, 'I-' he began nervously, 'I came to find you.' he babbled quickly in one breath. A rosy tint spread across Will's cheeks and an uneasy awkwardness spread out between them.

It had never been like this before; they were both very aware that when they were younger there had never been this prickly awkwardness between them. Neither could pinpoint when it had begun, though it was almost certainly after they had both ended their previous relationships. Yet it had grown between them like a palpable disease, which prevented them from saying certain things without experiencing embarrassment or holding eye contact for too long. They both detested this new found clumsiness that came in waves, it was as unexpected as flash floods and its aftermath lasted for an unforeseeable amount of time. The only thing either could conclude about it, was that it was there and their knowledge and understanding of it began and ended at that point.

Extraordinarily it was Will who broke the silence, gesturing towards the medics tent, she spoke quietly, 'They all seem…ok. Not too bad anyway; Aldarn seems pretty impatient to get fixed up and leave.' she offered pleasantly with a roll of the eyes.

'Yeah…' began Caleb, 'he's always been like that! Have you heard from Elyon yet? She said she'd be back about now.' Neither was particularly concerned for the young Queen's safety, she was perfectly capable of handling herself; yet it provided an opportunity for them both to shed their informally, friendly skins and don their roles as protectors of Meridian.

'No, but I can check with the girls, I imagine she's eager to see Cordelia and exchange battle stories.' she Will light-heartedly, already stepping towards the direction of Caleb's tent.

'I'll come with you then I guess.' offered Caleb, a soft shrug rippled across his shoulders as he shoved his hands into his familiar trench coat. Not so familiar however was the scrape of rough metal on the knuckles of his right hand as his fingers came into contact with something placed in his pocket. He frowned slightly as he removed the object, however the lines of concern were ironed out when recognised what it was.

'Will!' he looked up to see that she was a considerable distance ahead of him, 'Hey Will!' he bellowed, 'Wait! I have something for you!' she pivoted and looked at him with mild curiosity as he dashed towards, his right hand outstretched.

The glint of light on the small metal object clutched between Caleb's fingers was enough to send the small red-head's imaginations flailing wildly and quicken her heartbeat to dangerous speeds. Various situations flew about inside her red haired head; one second she was convinced that he was making some sort of declaration of his feelings towards her, the next it had been dashed from her mind for the sensationalist idea it was. Another possible explanation dawned on Will, one that quite quickly spiralled and grew until she was quite convinced that the man coming towards her was a thief and had stolen some precious heirloom from the rigor mortised fingers of some poor conscript and now had the audacity to present it to her as some sort of trophy.

She opened her mouth to tell him that he could keep whatever it was he had snatched from the dying fingers of an innocent man and that she was more than prepared to tell the other girls about his atrocities and have him sectioned under the mental health act as Caleb came to a halt in front of her.

He opened his right hand and revealed a simple hair grip embellished with a star; Will's hair grip. 'You dropped it while you were fighting and I thought that you might want it back, you wear it so often that I guess it must be special to you.' Will blushed and stammered incoherently.

She was at a complete loss for words, due to a mixture of surprise at the kind gesture that Caleb had done and her own stupidity in thinking that he would do anything so ridiculous and out of character as stealing from dead people. She lowered her head and mumbled a choked thank you before turning and once again heading back towards the tent. The sooner she got out of Meridian and away from Caleb, the better.

Will and Caleb continued on to the tent in complete, claustrophobic silence. There were ample opportunities for conversation but neither of them felt obliged to take advantage of the opportunities, Caleb was aware that Will was for some reason angry with him or at least uncomfortable and Will was all too aware that if she spoke she was almost certain to make an idiot out of herself; so their silence prevailed.

Upon their entry to the tent they were both attacked by a happy and victorious Elyon, decked out in 'victory robes' as she deemed them, after giving them a quick twirl and a slightly pretentious ' You like? You like?'

She sat the entire group down and pasted a serious look on her face. 'So…?' she began, earning confused looks from everyone, 'What do you want to do now?' she questioned lightly, 'The war's over, evil vanquished, goodness prevails ya-da ya-da! Are you eager to go back home or what?'

The four 'no's' that rang out were tainted by two 'yes's' coming from the mouths of Caleb and Will, both grinned sheepishly before Will repeated her 'Yes.' and cleared her throat to expand upon her answer, 'I just think we've been away for a really long time. Its been months since we were on earth and I miss home, I know you could do with a few extra hands El to clear things up but…if you could do without us I'd really like to get back as soon as possible.' She glanced around for the approval of the other girls and they all shrugged noncommittally, Will turned to Elyon who stood gracefully and stretched out her arms. She sighed heavily and said, 'Tonight then, I suppose, if you really want to get back.' Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay-Lin nodded sadly but Will smiled and embraced Elyon saying, 'I really am, sorry, Elyon.' Will glanced up and locked eyes with Caleb, she wasn't sure what she saw there and now that they were going to be on separate worlds again, she was happy to think that she didn't have to worry about it.

**Sorry for the wait, been slightly busy, but I hope this won't disappoint. The main storyline will start to take shape soon, just doing some establishing first.**

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	3. Chapter 3

Scars- Chapter Three

Will stood proudly in front of the ice blue portal. The girls had returned to their normal attire and a large crowd had gathered to see the ever-popular Guardians off.

A cool breeze has picked up as the prickly heat of the day gave way to the airy dusk, the Guardians were interspersed in various parts of the crowd saying their goodbyes. Will had managed to work her way through with little difficulty, her lithe and petite frame enabling her to pass quietly through the throng without causing a fuss.

One person, who was causing a rather large fuss, was Cornelia. She had been sharp with Will all day and was now sharing a teary farewell with Elyon and, once again, bitterly expressing her disdain for Will's eagerness to return to Heatherfield. Will stepped towards the two and repeated an idea she had expressed earlier, 'Why don't you just stay here for longer Cornelia? I know I'm the 'leader' and everything, but you don't have to come back 'cause I say so.' Cornelia petulantly flicked her blonde and fixed Will with a belittling stare before relying, 'Oh yeah! That'd be a great idea wouldn't it? For all of you to go back home without me and make my parents totally suspicious because I was supposed to be on holiday with all of you!' Her pitch and volume has escalated exponentially, so much so that the entire gathered crowd has gone silent and turned to listen.

Cornelia grinned and gave a quick wave before the crowd continued to surround the other Guardians and offer their well wishes. She leaned in closer to Will and added in an undertone, 'Plus, I know you just want to get back to you can move in on that new guy, Johnny, but I don't care if he lives in your building, _I saw him first_!'

Will choked out a surprised laugh and rolled her eyes at Cornelia's dramatics. 'You're welcome to him Cornelia, the guy's a perve.' She threw the comment back at the blonde not even needing to look at her to know that she would have a disgusted expression plastered across her face.

Will began to walk back towards the portal, time was ticking and she could see that it was beginning to get dark on earth, through the blue haze of the portal. A niggling doubt had begun to gnaw away at Will's insides as she contemplated their supposedly flawless excuse for being away fro so long. They had spun their families the story that they were going to Irma's beach house for the entire summer holidays and would return before school started in September. Bizarrely, Irma's family has been the easiest to convince as Irma had used her scary mind-control on them.

However, Will now saw the snag in their well spun plan. On a superficial level, not a single one of them was tanned and they all sported minor war wounds of some sort on their bodies. More technically was the possibility that any of their parents had 'dropped in' on them to find an empty beach shack and no sign of their teenage daughters. No mobile phone calls would have been answered, no postcards sent, no signal of any sort that the girls had been on the same planet in the last couple of months. In short, Will believed them to be screwed. Images of press conferences where their parents help up the last pictures taken of them, pleading to Joe Public for any information on the whereabouts of their beloved children, crossed Will's imagination. _I hope my mum doesn't use that picture of me from last summer, _thought Will, _I was wearing jelly shoes!_

The Guardians finally joined Will at the portal, wrestling their way through the eager crowd. Elyon and Cornelia were the last to make their way over to the group; a puffy eyed Cornelia glaring maliciously at the blue portal.

The Guardians turned towards the gathered crowd and waved happily, the crowd rippled and split slightly as a man on wooden crutches, supported by Caleb, emerged at the front of the crowd. Aldarn raised a hand and waved, wobbling slightly on his crutches, his right leg heavily bandaged. Caleb steadied him and walked forwards to say his goodbyes.

Elyon stepped back towards Aldarn as Caleb neared the group. Cornelia, still quite fond of the rebel leader, even after their break-up, stepped forwards to hug him first; the others followed suit, Will's hug being more of a quick pat on the back.

Once done, they turned towards the portal; Will stretched her arm forward before she was to step entirely through it. However on coming into contact with it she recoiled sharply, clutching her hand to her chest. 'What's up Vandom?' questioned Irma, jovially. But Will had no time to answer as the portal crackled slightly and turned a shocking blood red. Everyone present gasped and back away slightly, the Guardians visibly perturbed by what had happened. Another crackle had everyone ducking as a bolt of red lightening shot out from the portal, like an arm, lashing close to the Guardians. What happened next happened in the blink of an eye; too quickly for the people of Meridian to see. Another whip of lightening lashed out, surrounding the Guardians and Caleb. It pulled them towards the portal with an invisible energy; they were lifted off their feet and flung through the portal violently. In the next instant the red portal winked out of the sky leaving no visible trace of the Guardians or Meridian's rebel leader.

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**So, hi again. Sorry for the long gap but I've just gone back to college (not american college, english college) and its been a bit tricky getting back into routine and all that. But nevertheless, here we are. **


	4. Chapter 4

As darkness fell on another bitterly cold day in Heatherfield, the streets had already emptied. The unusually cold September had already instilled a winter-like mentality in the small town's residents; they went home earlier and huddled in their heated havens until the sun rose the next day.

It was lucky that the town was so quiet, as no one was around to witness the crimson light that radiated in the sky in one particular back alley, and the five teenagers that came tumbling out of it.

The dull thud that indicated their simultaneous landing was followed by a plethora of groans and exclamations of pain. There had been no comedy dustbin to land in, just a smooth expanse of concrete paving down a deserted alleyway.

Irma was the first to her feet, sporting a red cheek that would most certainly bruise and favouring her right leg over the soreness of her left. 'What is deal!?' she exclaimed loudly, wincing as she ran her hand over her head, finding an egg shaped lump there.

Caleb rolled onto his side and sat up, rubbing his arm before extending his hand to Will who lay on her back nearby. She took it and pulled herself up, looking around with an expression of utter bewilderment.

'Will!' screeched a bedraggled looking Cornelia, springing to her feet to tower menacingly over the red-head. 'What the hell did you do!? We could've been killed, I mean, have you gone completely insane, opening a portal ten feet above the ground?' Her hands flailed wildly about her head, her blonde hair whipped across her face by a sudden gust of wind.

Will opened her mouth to protest her complete innocence in the strange behaviour of the portal, but was beaten to it by a lower, agitated voice. Caleb's. 'Back off Cornelia! There's no way Will would have put us all in danger! That portal was acting completely on it's own- or I wouldn't be here would i?'

Cornelia's cheeks reddened as she stood there, physically rebuffed by Caleb's words. A series of guttural sounds escaped her throat as she stared from Caleb to Will, waiting, it seemed, for Caleb to laugh at the sheer absurdity of him taking Will's side over her. All that happened in place of this was Caleb stood and helped Will to her feet before moving onto the tangled and equally stunned heap of Taranee and Hay-lin.

Will had remained silent throughout this, only offering a slight upturn of her lips as gratitude to Caleb. Truthfully she felt he had been a bit hard on Cornelia, she was just shocked, that was all. However, Will didn't feel that calling Caleb up on it, when he so clearly didn't want to be here, was such a good plan.

Hay-lin had to be supported when she stood, her knee weak from the impact of the landing- she glanced up to the spot where the portal had been and shook her head. 'Weird.' she muttered, leaning on Taranee's shoulder.

Taranee glanced towards Will, 'Did you do anything different when you opened it Will?' she asked, careful to make the question sound as nonchalant as possible to avoid anymore accusations being thrown around.

Will shook her head, 'No.' she answered quietly, she had been affected more mentally than physically by the events, seeming to shrink in on herself. 'I just- I...just did what I always do. There was nothing wrong with the heart I mean, the portal was blue to begin with then it-.' Her own heart leapt into her mouth, as a sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. While talking her hand had travelled to her throat to clutch the familiar chain that the heart was on. It wasn't there.

She quickly peered inside her shirt to confirm that, yes, the Heart wasn't on her. Had it not been for the despair in her eyes, the sight of her jumping up and down, shaking herself to see if it had fallen into her clothing, might have been quite amusing. However, the other girls quickly began to scour the ground for any sign of it. Caleb began to ask logical questions, 'When did you last see it?'

'In Meridian.'

'Did you have it on when we came through the portal?'

'I don't know.'

'So how did you close the portal?' Will's patience snapped.

'I don't _know_ Caleb! It just closed!' He stopped asking questions after this and took to walking around the alleyway, hands in his pockets, kicking dirt around while sulking.

'Will, I really can't see it!' exclaimed a worried Taranee, after over twenty minutes searching. 'Maybe…' she hesitated, glancing around at the others, 'Maybe we should give up for tonight and try tomorrow, after school.' The others nodded their consent to this plan but Will shook her head furiously.

'I can't just go home and forget about it! What if someone found it? Look, you guys go home and I'll stay here till I find it!' Cornelia was eager to follow Will's plan but the others expressed their complete disagreement. They decided that it was too dangerous for Will to remain alone and therefore they would all stay.

However, after another fifteen minutes of futile searching they grew weary, until Caleb suggested a new plan.

The girls were to return home and Will and Caleb would stay and continue the search for as long as was necessary. The plan made Will uncomfortable, even more so after her outburst had caused him to act with vacant animosity towards her. However, she knew that going home would signal a defeat of sorts and she had not yet resigned herself to that fate.

The girls were sent away with a dull wave from the remaining pair and a promise to be careful. It was close to midnight and Will lamented her choice to return in just a t-shirt and jeans. She glanced enviously at where Caleb crouched, warm in his familiar trench coat. She sighed heavily and moved onto the next square of ground in the alleyway that she had allotted herself.

Caleb stood up, a rush of blood causing his vision to swim precariously with a mass of purple swirls. He leant against the alley wall, attempting to block out the putrid smell of rubbish and urine that crept into his nostrils. If he let himself, he could fall asleep, standing here, with no difficulty. Yet his eyes focussed on the frantic figure of Will and a chiding sympathy replaced his fatigue.

'Will,' he said softly into the darkness. She did not answer. 'Will.' he tried again, more purposefully, projecting his voice. She stopped and faced him, no words from her completely exhausted form. Her eyes brimmed with tears as she stood, helplessly diminished in the small alleyway, which still seemed to dwarf her figure.

Caleb prayed that she wouldn't cry; prayed that she would stay optimistic. He knew that there was nothing he would be able to say to stop her if she cried. On a deeper level, Caleb knew very well that if she cried, something inside him would break. He stepped forward and stretched forward a reassuring hand. 'Will…' he began again, 'its going to be OK. We'll find it alright? I just don't think it'll do either of us any good to stay out here. You've got school in the morning and I-' he had meant to say _I have to get back to Meridian, _but without the Heart there was no chance of that. For now he would return to the familiar squalor of Mrs Lin's basement. 'Come on.' He had reached her now, still rooted to the same spot, staring at the middle distance.

He placed a hand on her shoulder and guided her towards the end of the alleyway. After a few steps she shrugged herself clear of him and walked on her own.

The streets were deadly quiet, an ethereal sheet of moisture dampened their hair and skin as they emerged out of the alleyway onto a main road. Will shivered violently when a gust of wind whipped around the corner. Caleb hadn't noticed that she didn't have a coat on, he instantly felt guilty and shrugged out of his before handing it to her.

'I'm fine thanks.' she managed to mumble, before the coat was flung over her shoulders anyway. Sighing, she shoved her arms through the oversized sleeves, all too aware of how ridiculous she must look.

They wove their way through the desolate streets in silence, both too tired to say anything. It was now almost 1am and Will had no idea how she was going to explain her late, or early, arrival to her mother. Looking at Caleb, she was instantly reminded of the time he had walked her home all those years ago. It seemed like a hundred years ago that they had discussed Matt so light-heartedly; _before I screwed everything up, _thought Will bitterly. She was sadly reminded that she and Caleb never talked like that anymore. There was no sense of comradeship in their friendship, she barely even knew him now.

She wondered if Caleb felt the same way; he probably despised her, the one who had convinced him to break up with Cornelia, the girl who'd tried to be a friend to both parties, resulting in both of them acting hostile towards her.

There had been no malicious intent on Will's part when she had suggested that Caleb and Cornelia split up, she was going through difficulty with Matt at the time and Cornelia was already focussing her efforts on other boys. It seemed like a natural suggestion to make. One that to this day Cornelia was unaware of; Will had never for one second contemplated telling her.

'Are we almost at your house yet?' Caleb's gruff voice cut through Will's stream of consciousness. Will sensed and impatience in his voice, probably to be rid of her,

'Um...nearly. It's about five minutes from here. I can carry on alone if you want to…' She faltered, she didn't know what Caleb wanted, and she never had.

He shook his head immediately, 'Its fine.' was the only answer he could produce. _Fine, _thought Will, _if you want to communicate in monosyllables now, that's fine. _As they drew nearer to her house Will began to formulate plans in her head, with regards to an explanation for her mother. Late getaway? No. Late train? Feasible. Bizarre portal dumping them in an alleyway with no sign of the mythical stone that enabled them to turn into saviours of the earth? Probably best not to attempt that one.

'Will your mum be in?' asked Caleb suddenly, startling Will with his feeble conversation starter.

'Um…yeah, she's always in at…1am.' answered Will, trying to steer as far away from sarcasm as possible. Caleb nodded absently.

'How will you explain everything to her? Like you said, its 1am.' Will didn't really feel that it was helpful of Caleb to be voicing this concern; it wasn't like it hadn't crossed her mind.

'I was thinking of maybe popping a window. Avoid the awkward questions and sleep on a good plan. Reckon it'll work?' she asked hopefully, searching his face for some kind of unaccustomed humour. All she got instead was a sardonic glance, followed surprisingly by, 'I could give you a leg up, if you needed one.'

She snickered, 'Caleb, I barely make 5 feet, I find walking up stairs a challenge.'

'Then why'd you suggest it?' he asked, nonplussed. She shrugged, the large brown coat rustling slightly with her movement. 'Just trying to lighten the mood.'

They reached Will's building mercifully quickly; Will slid out of Caleb's oversized coat and handed it back to him with a grateful smile. Caleb returned the smile and placed a large hand on Will's shoulder. 'We'll find it Will. Everything will be alright.' Will nodded absently, 'Yeah, yeah. You're starting to sound like a broken record with all your optimism. A broken Bob Marley record at that.' She turned to slot her key into the lock.

She was inside before his words registered, swinging round she said 'Wait! What? Find what-?' Caleb had disappeared from sight, leaving Will swimming in perplexity. _Find what? _she thought, what was she looking for? And more importantly, why, suddenly, could she not remember anything from the last few weeks?

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**Well, here's another installment. This one's a bit long and took forever to write and subsequently type up. But I managed it! Thoughts? **

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	5. Chapter 5

The new school year began like any other, teachers talked about how important the coming year would be in determining their futures and students swopped summer stories, jovially slipping back into the normal routine of things.

Will arrived at school just as the first bell rang. Having woken up in a less than perfect state, she was surprised she had even made it for first lesson; having had to scrub the mud off her and rid herself of the terrible smell that was vaguely reminiscent of....well she dreaded to think. Utterly confused about how she had arrived in this state, she blamed her current state of fatigue and had all but convinced herself that it was a sure sign that she had had an eventful, fun summer. She had to convince herself because, curiously, she had little memory of what she'd done over the summer, other than patchy details of going away with her friends.

She walked through the hallways searching for the familiar faces of the others. Eventually their silhouettes emerged through the crowd, as if in a mirage and descended on her with worried faces and quizzical brows.

'Did you find it?' pounced Cornelia immediately; leaving Will with a perplexed and worried expression plastered across her face.

'Find what?' she asked uncertainly, praying that she had not lost one of Cornelia's possessions because it was unlikely that she'd ever earn enough money in a lifetime to buy another one of whatever it was.

'Find _it'_ hissed Cornelia viciously.

'Woah Corny calm down!' said Irma, 'Let the poor kid breathe.'

Will looked at each of them, all wearing the same anticipant expression, Will felt the instinctive need to shrink away from their persistent gazes.

She jumped sharply backwards when Cornelia lunged at her neckline, narrowly slipping out of the blonde's grasp as she clutched at Will's shirt.

'You're not wearing it!' she exclaimed, peering intently at Will's chest.

Will folded her arms across her chest, 'What is going on!?' she suddenly burst out, 'And why do you keep looking at my chest Cornelia! Quit it!'

Cornelia mirrored Will's pose, folding her own arms over her chest, while the others continued to gaze at Will, utterly befuddled by her sudden cluelessness.

'Look we're starting to draw attention.' hissed Taranee through clenched teeth, 'Can I suggest that we move this into a quieter rendezvous point?' She shunted Irma and Hay-lin towards an empty classroom, glancing back at Cornelia and Will who seemed to be having a staring contest, 'Ladies!' she exclaimed, causing the pair to jump and sidle into the empty room, where Taranee promptly closed the door.

'Now Will…' she began.

'STOP IT!' yelled Will suddenly. The group recoiled, flinching at Will's uncharacteristic outburst and before anyone could ask 'stop what?' she shouted again, 'Stop staring at me like that, like I've fallen down and bumped my head or something. What the hell is your problem!?'

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Caleb woke up with a dull ache in his neck, his head throbbed from lack of sleep and as he opened his weary, watery eyes he sighed. The heart. They would have to look for it again today, until they found it. A hot, uncomfortable feeling bubbled up inside his stomach, he liked to think it was anger, anger at Will for being so stupid; anger at all of them for just leaving Meridian and dragging him back here. But mostly, he found his anger directed mostly at Will. He pictured the way she had looked the night before, her red hair hanging limp after it was soaked by the moisture in the air, her forlorn face, doing it's best to convince him that it was completely not her fault that he was back on this god forsaken planet.

Yet Caleb knew he was deluding himself, the more he thought about her, the more he realised it wasn't anger. It wasn't just one emotion either, oh no, he felt guilty; guilty that he hadn't been able to find the heart, or even comfort her in someway. He felt nervous, nervous that she would treat him today with the same animosity that he had treated her with the night before. And most importantly of all, he felt lost. What had happened to the two of them? Their friendship had completely dissolved into nothing more than an exchange of terse words and awkward silences.

He could blame her, that would be easier, but he knew it was his fault. He hadn't made the effort; he had done with the others. He'd talked to Hay-lin, played childish games with her; he'd philosophised with Taranee and placated Irma by laughing at the occasional joke. He'd even made an effort with Cornelia from time-to-time, agreeing that her dress was pretty and other such meagre superficial matters. But he didn't know how to make the effort with Will, she was so insular and eventually he had given up trying to break through her tough outer exterior, chipping your teeth on rocks over and over was never much fun.

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In the deserted classroom Will snorted derisively before collapsing into laughter.

'Oh come on guys.' she said sarcastically, 'you seriously want me to believe that we just got back from another planet, dimension or whatever, where we fought a war, because it actually turns out that we're teenage superheroes?'

'Would you believe us if we said yes?' said Irma 'Because we're telling the truth here Vandom.'

Will shook her head and laughed again, there was no way that she was going to believe this tripe. They were having her on, and fine she'd believed them when they told her that gullible was being taken out of the dictionary all those years ago, but now she completely refused to believe such a childish notion.

'Will this is ridiculous.' spouted Taranee, 'Why don't you remember all of a sudden? We only came back from Meridian yesterday!' she was at a complete loss as to why Will was suddenly experiencing selective memory loss and honestly believed that they had spent the entire summer at Irma's beach house.

'Oh I get it!' chirruped Hay-lin, 'Maybe she's like, I dunno, trying to convince herself that we really _did_ spend the summer at Irma's so that if her mum asks her then it won't slip out that we were really saving the world, again.' Hay-lin grinned, obviously pleased that she had solved the great mystery.

'Nooo.' said Will suddenly, causing Hay-lin's grin to collapse. 'We really did spend the summer at Irma's.'

'OH MY GOD!' exclaimed Cornelia suddenly, she reached forward and shook Will by the shoulders. 'No-we-did-not!' she screamed, punctuating every word with a shake of Will's shoulders. 'We were in Meridian!' she said through clenched teeth. She released Will and glared at her, 'Then you decided we just had to come home, on the double, and then we got dragged unceremoniously back here, with Caleb in tow, and you lost the heart!' she finished, dramatically throwing her arms up in exasperation when Will continued to look blankly at her.

'Cornelia I don't even know who this 'Caleb' is' said Will quietly, forming air quotes around the name. 'I don't know what you mean when you say the heart and I am seriously considering going to the school counsellor and telling her that all have you have gone crazy!' At that the bell had rung and Will shrugged, 'I have to go, I guess we'll probably talk about this some more later.' she turned to walk out the room, 'See you after school.' she added as she turned at the door, before stepping out and disappearing into the throng of students that packed the hallways.

* * *

Caleb worked his way through the steady stream of students traipsing their way out of the imposing school gates. He caught snatches of conversation as he made his way against the flow of people, to stand just outside the gates waiting for the girls. He figured that they would want to go straight from school to search for the heart again and felt that he should probably make himself as useful as possible while on earth. Plus Mrs Lin had tried to get him serving customers and finding the heart had served as a suitable excuse.

As the crowd thinned and the last few students made their way home Caleb heard a familiar voice cutting through the air.

'I understand that you obviously feel the need for attention once in a while Will, but this is just beyond ridiculous now! It's not big and it's not clever! So just stop!'

Caleb peeked round a wall to see the five girls walking towards him, unaware of his presence as they were immersed in a heated exchange that seemed, unusually, to be directed at Will.

'I'm not being ridiculous Cornelia! You are! You all are! I'm not going to some random alleyway all the way across town to look for some stupid necklace. I'm tired, I have way too much work to do and I'm going home.'

At that Will broke off from the group and stormed past Caleb, looking straight through him. The others had finally noticed him as they gaped at Will's small figure, weaving her way through other students. He raised an eyebrow in question and they all simultaneously shrugged.

'Vandom's gone crazy.' said Irma finally. 'Who would've guessed she'd be the first one to go mental, personally I always thought it would be Corny.'

'Thanks Irma.' said Cornelia bitterly; she looked at Caleb, 'she says she can't remember anything. Well, its not that she's forgotten, she's convinced that W.I.T.C.H doesn't exist, and to be perfectly honest it's not an easy task to convince a seventeen year old that she's actually a superhero.'

Caleb turned around to look over the slowly dispersing crowd of people, just in the distance he could see her red hair that distinguished her from everyone else.

'Well we'd better go after her.' he said, looking at each girl in turn, 'Don't you think?' they shrugged noncommittally, 'We have to find the heart!'

At that he turned and started working his way through the crowd in the direction that Will had gone, shouting her name. Finally he caught up with her, she was still walking away, quite quickly, and had completely ignored his calls.

'Will!' he shouted again, touching her shoulder, causing her to swivel round in fright.

'What!?' she snapped viciously, staring him down with a look that he'd never seen her give anyone before.

'Uhhh I just...' he faltered, 'I just thought you'd be coming with us that's all.'

She frowned, peering at him intently before flicking her chin upwards slightly in a defiant mannerism.

'I'm sorry I don't even know who you are.' With that she walked away leaving him standing in the middle of a road, completely bewildered.

* * *

**Hiii. I do apologise for my major slacking of late, I have been super busy with college work and uni applications. But I've finally managed to pull this together. Enjoyyy! xoxo**


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